ELEPHANTS, HIPPOS, WORT HOGS, OH MY ( I apologize ahead of time for the length!)
The longer periods of time that I am in Accra, the more my urge to travel increases. Not that I despise Accra, I don’t, but it is a little intense for me. I love leaving the city and venturing out to small, remote villages. Or finding hikes in the jungle, and meeting different types of people all throughout Ghana. Our group did another organized trip to Kumasi (A city about 6 hours north of Accra) and it was really fun. They had markets with the most beautiful woven cloth, paintings, and jewelry. I find myself automatically gravitate towards any painting stand/booth. The artwork is so different here, they use the brightest colors and have the most interesting style. I definitely spent a good amount of money on artwork that weekend.
Our group stayed in Kumasi for the weekend, and were planning on returning to Accra on Sunday. A group of friends and I (7 total) decided since we were already halfway up Ghana, we should take this opportunity to travel all the way north to a town called Mole. Mole is known for it’s safari hikes, and wild animals. Usually, the trip from Accra to Mole is 14 hours by bus, but since we left from Kumasi it cut our travel time in half. So, when the rest of our group left for Accra, we boarded a bus to Tomale, a village about 6 hours north of Kumasi. We got to Tomale at about 5 pm, and met an amazing Ghanain man on the bus who shared with us all about his non-profit organization he had started in Ghana. He told us we should stay at the Catholic Guest House, which had cheap rooms for the night. So once we arrived in Tomale, he had his driver take us to the Guest House. He did this for us all out of genuine kindness, and it was encouraging for us to run into such great people. The Catholic guest house was modest, but was great for just staying the night. The rooms had 2 twin beds and a bucket shower. There was a great little restaurant down the street that we walked to, and had pizza ( unheard of!) And played cards that night. We had to wake up the next morning at 3 am to catch the 5 am bus to Larabonga (which is a TINY village right outside Mole).
We use our guidebooks ALL the time, which I hate to admit because it makes me feel like such a tourist. Not that the guidebook is the only thing that gives me away here. Haha But, for background info, the guidebook said to be careful in Larabonga for there are many many many "professional friends" as we call them. (People who cling to you instantly, can’t get rid of them, and try to be sneaky and rob you somehow.) We were a little nervous getting off the bus in Larabonga, but we were fine. There were a LOT of professional friends that instantly surrounded us trying to get us to go in their taxi, or see their house, or buy their food. It was definitely overwhelming. At the beginning, I tried to be polite saying "no thank you, no thank you, no thank you." But honestly, they were being relentless, and you can’t be polite with them. We had to be really stern, and eventually I got to the point of being somewhat rude, which I felt bad about but there was really no alternative. If you weren’t, they wouldn’t leave you alone. In Larabonga, we got a taxi to the Mole Hotel, which was about a 15 min ride. We arrived in Mole at about 8:30 am, and the hotel was phenomenal! There were 3 twin beds to a room, and actual shower, and AIR CONDITIONING! We felt completely spoiled. For a comparison, this room in reality wouldn’t of been half as nice as a motel 6, but to us it was great! We were all pretty tired from the journey, so the rest of the group decided to take naps, while I went out to this beautiful platform that overlooked all of the national park. The platform had chairs, and you could sit there and see the elephants below in the distance bathing in the water. I brought a book down there to read, when a man who worked at the hotel yelled "elephant over here" Naturally, I ran up and right behind the laundry lines was an elephant, just hanging out. We were able to get extremely close, and just observe it. So cool. When everyone woke up from their naps, I told them about what had happened, and they were all so disappointed they missed it, but we were going on a safari hike the next day where we would see a lot of them.
This hotel had a pool, (which is another HUGE luxury) and we relaxed and laid by the pool that whole day. It was hilarious, because I was sitting there in a chair reading, when a family of wort hogs walked up behind me. They just were hanging out by the pool as well!
The following morning, we got up early for our hike. Our tour guide, Peke, was great and took us all around the park where we saw spider monkeys, baboons, elephants, worthogs, crocodiles, and elephants. It was amazing being able to get so close to the animals, and to be honest I was a littttllle nervous around the elephants because Peke told us they are the 2nd fastest animal to the cheetah, and if you scare them they will charge you and kill you. (Ps, I love how our tour guide literally said things like that to us DURING our hike. He wouldn’t tone it down either, he would go into detail about how they will charge you, and even if you climb a tree would charge the tree until you fell, and then would kill you. ) I told Peke to only give me the bare minimum information about the dangerous animals after that. Haha So, the hike was fantastic and I got some really cool pictures.
After the hike we stayed at the hotel for the afternoon by the pool, and later decided to go back into Larabonga to stay one night there. The guidebook explained this really cool sounding place where you could sleep on the roof of a guesthouse and look at the stars. We got into Larabonga, and again the people there were intense. I visited the mosque there, that was the first mosque in Ghana, and the 2nd mosque in Africa. I felt a little awkward while in Larabonga because it is solely a Muslim village, so all the women are covered head to toe. We tromp in there in our tank tops and shorts (it is soooo hot you would die if you wore anything else! ) and granted our shorts are long, to our knees even, but I still felt a little uncomfortable with how we were all dressed. I like to try to respect the culture of the place I am staying in, whether it be how I greet people, not using my left hand for anything (in Ghana, if you give someone something with your left hand, it is considered extremely rude. If you are holding something in your right hand, and need to give someone something and only your left hand is free, you stop, put the thing down that is in your right hand, and then hand them the thing with your right hand. And you NEVER eat with your left hand.).But so anyways, I felt awkward, but the people said they understood our culture was different so it was fine. After viewing the mosque, we found the guesthouse we were to stay at.
The guesthouse was run by two brothers, the Salia brothers. They were fantastic. They were so hospitable, and gracious. The place was an adobe hut pretty much, with about 4 rooms that had one bed in each room, with no electricity. We were staying on the roof anyways, so it didn’t matter. All 7 of us went up to the roof, were Salia put mattresses up there for us to sleep on. The ladder to the roof was a tree branch, the width of my foot, with notches carved in them. It took me a while to get up and down from the roof, because of my fear of heights. But it was super cool up on the roof. Once it got dark, the stars were beautiful and there happened to be a funeral going on that night (which is a huge celebration here) So there was drumming and singing all night that we could hear from the roof. The bathroom was a hole in the ground in a tiny room, and I can say that I appreciate actual toilets so much now! As travelers, we are now incredibly easy to please. If a place has a toilet (even with no running water) and a shower ( never hot water) we are thrilled!
So we spent the night in Larabonga and the following morning got up to catch an 8am bus to Wa (a village north of Mole). When the bus got to Larabonga, it was already completely full, so we had to come up with a different plan. Salia called his friend who came from a village 2 hours away to take us in his truck up to Wa. We thought he had a van, but when he got there we realized it was the back of a pick up truck! He had two wooden benches in the back, and the 7 of us fit back there. We were all excited because we figured it would be quite the adventure to ride in the back of a truck for 4 hours down bumpy dirt roads. Well, it was exciting.....for the first hour! After that, we were all about 4 shades darker due to all the caked on dirt, and our bottoms were completely numb due to how bad we were bouncing up and down. We finally made it to Wa, where we went straight to the Hippo Sanctuary.
The people in Wa were fantastic. They helped us find our way around, got us food, and showed us where we needed to stay the night. We were planning on going on the river tour in the morning to see the hippos, so we stayed the night in the lodge that offered the tours. The lodge was an adobe building with beds in them, no electricity so the rooms were pitch black by the time we got there. There was the option of sleeping in tree platforms about 40 ft off the ground, that overlooked part of the village. We decided to do that, and all slept on the same tree platform. There was no food at the lodge, so dinner that night consisted of bread loafs and crackers.
The next morning we woke up early to begin the walk to the river. Our tour guide led us there, and it was about a half hour walk. Once we got to the river, there were old, wooden canoes waiting for us. Each canoe had a man in the back who would do the rowing. 4 of us climbed into one, 3 in the other. The river was amazing, wide with thick green forest on each side. One side of the river shore was Ghana, while the other was Burkina Faso (bordering country). We paddled down stream for a while until we came across a family of hippos. Now, earlier in the week I had told a man working at a market that I was going canoeing with hippos, and he said I was crazy because they were mean, aggressive animals that you don’t want to go near. So, I was a little on edge once I saw the hippos. At least they were sleeping, but then our tourguide pulled these chains out and started clinking them together, apparently that wakes the hippos up. (Which I didnt think was such a great idea haha) But it ended up being totally fine, and it was sooo sooo cool to be able to canoe with hippos! We kept a safe distance, about 50 of so ft, and they didn’t seem to be bothered.
After the river tour, we decided to start our trek back to Accra. We went back to the village of Wichio, and got in the back of a different pick-up truck that already had 20 people in it! We were all so crowded and uncomfortable, but luckily that ride was only an hour. Once we got to Wa, we found a bus that was going to Kumasi, and got on that. The bus driver said the bus would leave at 1pm, and it was only 11am. So we walked around the station, and ate lunch at a few stands. We went back to the bus, and waited until 4 pm for it to leave! But, TIA. (This is Africa). The bus left at 4 pm, and we got to Kumasi at 1 am. We were planning on spending the night in Kumasi, and getting up early to take a bus to Accra, but it was already so late, we decided to just take a night bus back to Accra.
The bus station in Kumasi is easily one of the craziest things that I have seen in Africa yet. Haha It was so hectic. Keep in mind it was 1 am, we had been traveling all day and were exhausted. Immediately after we got off our bus, we were swarmed. There were easily 1,000 people at this station, and we were the only white people. The people were all yelling at us, grabbing us, trying to get us to board their bus. (There were about 8 leaving to Accra that night.) As hard as we tried to stay together, it was impossible. The 7 of us were all trying to find eachother and decide what bus to take, while being pulled in different directions. Some of our group were freaking out, while I think I was so tired I just found it somewhat amusing. We eventually picked a bus, and sprinted to it! Once on it, we all calmed down and everyone was fine. We all passed out as soon as we got on the bus, and eventually made it back to Accra at 5:30 am.
This trip has been the most spontaneous, adventure filled trip I have ever taken. The people I traveled with were great; easy going and fun to be around. The week flew by, and I did things on this trip I would have never imagined myself doing. It was a wonderful yet exhausting trip, and I am excited to take it easy in Legon for the week! Sorry this entry has gotten so lengthy, hope you enjoyed!
-Nat
The longer periods of time that I am in Accra, the more my urge to travel increases. Not that I despise Accra, I don’t, but it is a little intense for me. I love leaving the city and venturing out to small, remote villages. Or finding hikes in the jungle, and meeting different types of people all throughout Ghana. Our group did another organized trip to Kumasi (A city about 6 hours north of Accra) and it was really fun. They had markets with the most beautiful woven cloth, paintings, and jewelry. I find myself automatically gravitate towards any painting stand/booth. The artwork is so different here, they use the brightest colors and have the most interesting style. I definitely spent a good amount of money on artwork that weekend.
Our group stayed in Kumasi for the weekend, and were planning on returning to Accra on Sunday. A group of friends and I (7 total) decided since we were already halfway up Ghana, we should take this opportunity to travel all the way north to a town called Mole. Mole is known for it’s safari hikes, and wild animals. Usually, the trip from Accra to Mole is 14 hours by bus, but since we left from Kumasi it cut our travel time in half. So, when the rest of our group left for Accra, we boarded a bus to Tomale, a village about 6 hours north of Kumasi. We got to Tomale at about 5 pm, and met an amazing Ghanain man on the bus who shared with us all about his non-profit organization he had started in Ghana. He told us we should stay at the Catholic Guest House, which had cheap rooms for the night. So once we arrived in Tomale, he had his driver take us to the Guest House. He did this for us all out of genuine kindness, and it was encouraging for us to run into such great people. The Catholic guest house was modest, but was great for just staying the night. The rooms had 2 twin beds and a bucket shower. There was a great little restaurant down the street that we walked to, and had pizza ( unheard of!) And played cards that night. We had to wake up the next morning at 3 am to catch the 5 am bus to Larabonga (which is a TINY village right outside Mole).
We use our guidebooks ALL the time, which I hate to admit because it makes me feel like such a tourist. Not that the guidebook is the only thing that gives me away here. Haha But, for background info, the guidebook said to be careful in Larabonga for there are many many many "professional friends" as we call them. (People who cling to you instantly, can’t get rid of them, and try to be sneaky and rob you somehow.) We were a little nervous getting off the bus in Larabonga, but we were fine. There were a LOT of professional friends that instantly surrounded us trying to get us to go in their taxi, or see their house, or buy their food. It was definitely overwhelming. At the beginning, I tried to be polite saying "no thank you, no thank you, no thank you." But honestly, they were being relentless, and you can’t be polite with them. We had to be really stern, and eventually I got to the point of being somewhat rude, which I felt bad about but there was really no alternative. If you weren’t, they wouldn’t leave you alone. In Larabonga, we got a taxi to the Mole Hotel, which was about a 15 min ride. We arrived in Mole at about 8:30 am, and the hotel was phenomenal! There were 3 twin beds to a room, and actual shower, and AIR CONDITIONING! We felt completely spoiled. For a comparison, this room in reality wouldn’t of been half as nice as a motel 6, but to us it was great! We were all pretty tired from the journey, so the rest of the group decided to take naps, while I went out to this beautiful platform that overlooked all of the national park. The platform had chairs, and you could sit there and see the elephants below in the distance bathing in the water. I brought a book down there to read, when a man who worked at the hotel yelled "elephant over here" Naturally, I ran up and right behind the laundry lines was an elephant, just hanging out. We were able to get extremely close, and just observe it. So cool. When everyone woke up from their naps, I told them about what had happened, and they were all so disappointed they missed it, but we were going on a safari hike the next day where we would see a lot of them.
This hotel had a pool, (which is another HUGE luxury) and we relaxed and laid by the pool that whole day. It was hilarious, because I was sitting there in a chair reading, when a family of wort hogs walked up behind me. They just were hanging out by the pool as well!
The following morning, we got up early for our hike. Our tour guide, Peke, was great and took us all around the park where we saw spider monkeys, baboons, elephants, worthogs, crocodiles, and elephants. It was amazing being able to get so close to the animals, and to be honest I was a littttllle nervous around the elephants because Peke told us they are the 2nd fastest animal to the cheetah, and if you scare them they will charge you and kill you. (Ps, I love how our tour guide literally said things like that to us DURING our hike. He wouldn’t tone it down either, he would go into detail about how they will charge you, and even if you climb a tree would charge the tree until you fell, and then would kill you. ) I told Peke to only give me the bare minimum information about the dangerous animals after that. Haha So, the hike was fantastic and I got some really cool pictures.
After the hike we stayed at the hotel for the afternoon by the pool, and later decided to go back into Larabonga to stay one night there. The guidebook explained this really cool sounding place where you could sleep on the roof of a guesthouse and look at the stars. We got into Larabonga, and again the people there were intense. I visited the mosque there, that was the first mosque in Ghana, and the 2nd mosque in Africa. I felt a little awkward while in Larabonga because it is solely a Muslim village, so all the women are covered head to toe. We tromp in there in our tank tops and shorts (it is soooo hot you would die if you wore anything else! ) and granted our shorts are long, to our knees even, but I still felt a little uncomfortable with how we were all dressed. I like to try to respect the culture of the place I am staying in, whether it be how I greet people, not using my left hand for anything (in Ghana, if you give someone something with your left hand, it is considered extremely rude. If you are holding something in your right hand, and need to give someone something and only your left hand is free, you stop, put the thing down that is in your right hand, and then hand them the thing with your right hand. And you NEVER eat with your left hand.).But so anyways, I felt awkward, but the people said they understood our culture was different so it was fine. After viewing the mosque, we found the guesthouse we were to stay at.
The guesthouse was run by two brothers, the Salia brothers. They were fantastic. They were so hospitable, and gracious. The place was an adobe hut pretty much, with about 4 rooms that had one bed in each room, with no electricity. We were staying on the roof anyways, so it didn’t matter. All 7 of us went up to the roof, were Salia put mattresses up there for us to sleep on. The ladder to the roof was a tree branch, the width of my foot, with notches carved in them. It took me a while to get up and down from the roof, because of my fear of heights. But it was super cool up on the roof. Once it got dark, the stars were beautiful and there happened to be a funeral going on that night (which is a huge celebration here) So there was drumming and singing all night that we could hear from the roof. The bathroom was a hole in the ground in a tiny room, and I can say that I appreciate actual toilets so much now! As travelers, we are now incredibly easy to please. If a place has a toilet (even with no running water) and a shower ( never hot water) we are thrilled!
So we spent the night in Larabonga and the following morning got up to catch an 8am bus to Wa (a village north of Mole). When the bus got to Larabonga, it was already completely full, so we had to come up with a different plan. Salia called his friend who came from a village 2 hours away to take us in his truck up to Wa. We thought he had a van, but when he got there we realized it was the back of a pick up truck! He had two wooden benches in the back, and the 7 of us fit back there. We were all excited because we figured it would be quite the adventure to ride in the back of a truck for 4 hours down bumpy dirt roads. Well, it was exciting.....for the first hour! After that, we were all about 4 shades darker due to all the caked on dirt, and our bottoms were completely numb due to how bad we were bouncing up and down. We finally made it to Wa, where we went straight to the Hippo Sanctuary.
The people in Wa were fantastic. They helped us find our way around, got us food, and showed us where we needed to stay the night. We were planning on going on the river tour in the morning to see the hippos, so we stayed the night in the lodge that offered the tours. The lodge was an adobe building with beds in them, no electricity so the rooms were pitch black by the time we got there. There was the option of sleeping in tree platforms about 40 ft off the ground, that overlooked part of the village. We decided to do that, and all slept on the same tree platform. There was no food at the lodge, so dinner that night consisted of bread loafs and crackers.
The next morning we woke up early to begin the walk to the river. Our tour guide led us there, and it was about a half hour walk. Once we got to the river, there were old, wooden canoes waiting for us. Each canoe had a man in the back who would do the rowing. 4 of us climbed into one, 3 in the other. The river was amazing, wide with thick green forest on each side. One side of the river shore was Ghana, while the other was Burkina Faso (bordering country). We paddled down stream for a while until we came across a family of hippos. Now, earlier in the week I had told a man working at a market that I was going canoeing with hippos, and he said I was crazy because they were mean, aggressive animals that you don’t want to go near. So, I was a little on edge once I saw the hippos. At least they were sleeping, but then our tourguide pulled these chains out and started clinking them together, apparently that wakes the hippos up. (Which I didnt think was such a great idea haha) But it ended up being totally fine, and it was sooo sooo cool to be able to canoe with hippos! We kept a safe distance, about 50 of so ft, and they didn’t seem to be bothered.
After the river tour, we decided to start our trek back to Accra. We went back to the village of Wichio, and got in the back of a different pick-up truck that already had 20 people in it! We were all so crowded and uncomfortable, but luckily that ride was only an hour. Once we got to Wa, we found a bus that was going to Kumasi, and got on that. The bus driver said the bus would leave at 1pm, and it was only 11am. So we walked around the station, and ate lunch at a few stands. We went back to the bus, and waited until 4 pm for it to leave! But, TIA. (This is Africa). The bus left at 4 pm, and we got to Kumasi at 1 am. We were planning on spending the night in Kumasi, and getting up early to take a bus to Accra, but it was already so late, we decided to just take a night bus back to Accra.
The bus station in Kumasi is easily one of the craziest things that I have seen in Africa yet. Haha It was so hectic. Keep in mind it was 1 am, we had been traveling all day and were exhausted. Immediately after we got off our bus, we were swarmed. There were easily 1,000 people at this station, and we were the only white people. The people were all yelling at us, grabbing us, trying to get us to board their bus. (There were about 8 leaving to Accra that night.) As hard as we tried to stay together, it was impossible. The 7 of us were all trying to find eachother and decide what bus to take, while being pulled in different directions. Some of our group were freaking out, while I think I was so tired I just found it somewhat amusing. We eventually picked a bus, and sprinted to it! Once on it, we all calmed down and everyone was fine. We all passed out as soon as we got on the bus, and eventually made it back to Accra at 5:30 am.
This trip has been the most spontaneous, adventure filled trip I have ever taken. The people I traveled with were great; easy going and fun to be around. The week flew by, and I did things on this trip I would have never imagined myself doing. It was a wonderful yet exhausting trip, and I am excited to take it easy in Legon for the week! Sorry this entry has gotten so lengthy, hope you enjoyed!
-Nat
Natty,
ReplyDeleteGreat blogs. You are such a good writer. I'll forward them to everyone in the family. I read Berkeley's blogs too. I hope that is OK. Tell her she's an excellent writer as well. I didn't want to leave her a comment as I don't know her. Take care.
Love,
Dad